I came to strawberries later in life, which is only half-true. I actually spent my childhood on my knees, picking strawberries at my grandfather's farm, which was really just one large strawberry patch, because to my knowledge he didn't grow anything else. I saved milk cartons year-round, kept in our garage, for that specific purpose.

Picking strawberries is a joyless task when you're a kid and would rather be doing anything else at all. I didn't eat them then. I loathed them.

But what I wouldn't give for a milk carton of my grandfather's strawberries today. The next best thing, it turns out, are the ones you can find grown around here.

Bobby Bever at Highway 19 Produce & Berries in Athens

(Vernon Bryant/Staff Photographer)

Bobby Bever with Highway 19 Produce and Berries in Athens grows two varieties, Chandler and Camino Real, but only brings the Caminos to the local markets in Dallas. The Chandlers, super-juicy and with very thin skins, are far too fragile, and once-picked, have a shelf life for only a couple of days.

I asked him to bring some for me anyway, and he was right. They didn't last long, and I ate as many of them as I could and gave a bunch of them away to everyone else, like my grandfather used to do. He'd line all of the milk cartons full of strawberries on the ledge of his front porch, and anyone who wanted some could just stop by and pick them up.

Simple, sweet

I like to eat strawberries in every way that I can, but mostly, just as they are. I've been eating Bobby's strawberries one at a time, sometimes without even bothering to rinse off the dirt, and on oatmeal or with yogurt for breakfast.

I like sweet strawberries with fresh cracked pepper for dessert more than anything at all, something that I picked up when I lived in Paris. The strawberries there are so sweet that they need something — in this case, hot notes of black pepper — and Bobby's do, too.

Savory, too

It's not a big stretch to go savory. Chef Matt McCallister of FT33 restaurant in Dallas gets 50 pounds of Bobby's strawberries each week during the season and makes two savory dishes and one sweet dish. Last year, he made a strawberry marinara, a strawberry and beet salad, and a strawberry gazpacho (see recipe below).

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"I did a wheat farfalle pasta and I cooked it with some canned tomatoes we put up from a previous summer," he says. "Tomatoes have their own sweetness, and when you apply salt and garlic and onion to strawberries, it makes them savory, too."

"You have to be willing to experiment," McCallister adds.

Misti Norris, chef and owner of Petra and the Beast, is also doing a spin on pasta with strawberries, but in a different way.

"We're using fermented strawberry tops [the greens with a small bit of the fruit] as a sauce because we're waiting for the good tomatoes to come," she says. Her quick, two-week ferment is as simple as it gets and: a little kosher salt, dried chiles, garlic and caraway seeds. She nixes the vinegar to keep the flavor soft, without a harsh bite.